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Feeling Accomplished: Siding

Matt and I had a very specific goal in mind this weekend as we headed up to Asheville. That isn't to say we don't normally, but this time the goal was to have the house sided! We knew we couldn't do it all in the time we had available, but if we could just get three sides done we would feel accomplished. And that is exactly what we did.

We left Atlanta about 6am on Saturday morning and drove directly up to Mt. Matt. We packed sandwiches and water and evening entertainment to prevent ourselves from wanting to leave the mountain to go into Asheville. It worked perfectly. We arrived and set out immediately to work on the siding.

I began staining the panels. I have never stained before and it took me some time to get the hang of it. I learned quickly that staining is a completely different skill set than painting. I caught on quickly. The stain is from Lowe's and the color is called "Espresso". The intention was to mimic the appearance of the bar as much as we could. The barn has a metal roof and the outside is old weathered wood. So the house has the brown/black stain with the gray metal roof. We love the color combination.

After we started me staining panels, Matt would measure the house to determine where to cut the window openings. Once the stain was dry enough, he would cut those out and we could install the siding.

We completed the entire left side of the house on day one. We started there, of course, because it is the part of the house the faces the woods. The rest of it is really visible.

We rewarded our first day of hard work with dinner out at a local watering hole. Then we came back to the barn and Matt played some music while I did some other blogging.

On day two, we got up early and headed right back up to keep staining, cutting and siding.

We finished around 2pm and cleaned up, packed up and headed back to Atlanta.

As a side note, I mention here sometimes the wildlife that I love up at Mt. Matt. This weekend I had three insect run-ins that I loved.

There was the Yellow Jacket Hoverfly, also known as the Good News Bee:

And there was this little caterpillar that I saved from certain death as he had found himself on Matt's skill saw in the middle of the project.

And lastly, this spider. I haven't been able to identify it. I have googled "pointed spider" and I come up with nothing. Those little triangles on his back are actually points and black spot on his abdomen is also pointy.

The next trip up, in September, we should be able to finish the siding on the front of the house as well as on the gables. Then we have to trim it and put up the battens that will be simply cosmetic. Having the siding done seems like a real milestone. You can always check out the entirety of our progress here.

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